Lumare - Ripoff and little recourse
I have really bad bags under my eyes so I wanted to try Soliel; I ordered the Soliel and was given a choice to add Lumanere, which I did, with the only charge being for shipping. There was absolutely nothing about a 14 day trial period before being charged full price.
I'm very computer literate and I always look for the "gotcha". I received an email confirming the order, but the total charge for both was $28; this included two $10 charges for each product (handling? unclear notation on the charges) plus shipping, which was a reasonable charge. Again, there was nothing on the confirmation email to alert me that this was a 14-day free trial.
I tried both products, but especially the eye cream, for close to a month. There was absolutely no difference or improvements. When I received my credit card statement, I saw three charges that added up to the $28 I agreed to pay. Then, further down there were 2 more charges for almost $90 each with descriptions and different phone numbers.
I called the phone number for one of the products and got options for each for reorders. Finally, by pressing 0, I got a customer representative named David. David explained that, since I didn't return the products within 14 days, I was charged the full price for each. First, I went through cancelling the "automatic reorders" so that I would get charged again; I haven't had another credit card statement since then, so I have only his assurance that I won't be charged again.
Then I told him I wanted the $90 charges credited back to my account. David told me that he couldn't do that so I told him I would write as many negative reviews to warn others; that didn't help. Then I told him I was going to dispute the charge with my credit card company. He said something like "Are you saying you are going to dispute the charge" as if he had to get that statement confirmed and then said he could credit half of the charge back.
I told him that was good enough and that I wanted to talk to a supervisor. After continuing to complain, he finally told me that if I returned the products, he could credit the full amount but that I would be responsible for the return postage. Note that, even though I was initially talking about one of the products, I made sure that he was taking care of cancelling reorders for BOTH products. I still felt that I was being ripped off, so I insisted on speaking to a supervisor.
He said I would receive a call in 24 to 48 hours. I asked what the caller ID would show, since I don't answer phone calls from unfamiliar numbers and he told me it would show the number I just called. While I was on the phone, I got information on how to return the products and he gave me specific info on the address and to write certain numbers on the outside of the envelope. He gave me this information reluctantly as if he really didn't want to do that.
I asked how I could be sure that they would credit my account and he said if I followed his instructions I would get the credit. Not exactly encouraging! No one called within a week, so finally, I bought a padded envelope and mailed the product back, following his instructions to the letter. Then I called my credit card company (I've used the same credit union for over 25 years) and the young lady informed me that she could remove the charges BUT I would have to get a new credit card to do so.
That isn't appealing to me because, as a business person, I have a number of recurrent charges that I would then have to notify of the changes - plus it would leave me without a credit card (I have only one) for up to 10 days. Finally I decided not to do that although, if I receive further charges, I may have to go that route. So, my main complaint is that the terms of the "free trial" weren't spelled out anywhere - including any fine print or on my confirmation email. If the products didn't work, I was already out $28, but I could live with that.
But I couldn't live with another $180 for the products that are worthless. My secondary complaint is that I was totally at the mercy of this unscrupulous company who is taking advantage of people every day. They obviously have a routine starting with they can't refund the money, they can refund half of the money and then they can refund all of the money if you say the right things during the call.
At the end of my call with David, I remarked that I bet he dealt with these calls all day long and his reply was "That's my day" so they know that the product is worthless and that they've got peoples' money and credit card or bank account number and they can really do whatever they want to do. Just don't go into this unless you know especially that it is a 14 day free trial and it will cost you more money to get out of it.
Reason of review: Not as described/ advertised.
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It happened to me to. I an trying to cancel the $98.04 on my bank account. Thanks for the information